The French team hasn’t done it since 2010: winning the 6 Nations Tournament by achieving the Grand Slam, five wins in five games. A few days before spring, French rugby is two crampons away from winning this tournament without fail. But if the match is played at the Stade de France on Saturday evening, if the home advantage is French, the English really want to spoil the party. Jean Baptiste Elissalde is one of those who achieved the Grand Slam with the blues. Even if in 2004, injured, he did not play the last match against the English, the La Rochelle finished top scorer for the France team just ahead of Dimitri Yachvili. Interview for France Bleu La Rochelle.
Jean Baptiste, what feelings does it give to achieve a Grand Slam with the XV of France?
What this provides throughout the competition is that the more matches you win, the closer you get to when you can win this competition undefeated. It’s a lot of pride and it’s something that marks in the history of a rugby player because it doesn’t happen often. It would be the tenth time this weekend. It’s rare enough to be exceptional. It was for us, this generation, really a rebound. Because in 2003, that didn’t necessarily end well at the World Cup and it was a kind of revenge for us. We had experienced it like that and it was a very good moment.
We have the feeling that the XV of France has never been so close to achieving it again, and that the group is also in a good position to do so.
Yes, the team changes little. Players are confident they can do it. They are one hundred percent in the project and we can see that this team has mental resources. We also see that it’s a bunch of friends and that on the rugby level, sincerely, I think that we have taken a step today, which we may not have done in other years. . Then, the quality of our players is quite incredible. But the problem is that opposite, the English are still strong. As the match approaches, the pressure on the players must be limited. There, it is the job of the staff to present this match as another.
There have been very few changes made to the France band since the fall tour. There is a form of continuity.
Yes, we had discussed it with Fabien Galthié when he came to join us in the staff to prepare for the World Cup. Stability was really an essential point for improvement, because the team changed a lot. We also didn’t have all the facilities they have today to train with almost 40 players. The group is therefore unchanged, and in Fabien Galthié’s vision, I know from having discussed it with him, he is not in the process of changing teams all the time. He wants to keep the maximum and that is what is happening. We see that the team composition changes very little and in addition, as he wins, there are very few reasons to change to test something else.
This French team, we have the feeling that it is finally quite balanced, that it presents enormous forces in front and great capacities behind. She is complete.
There is also one thing that matters a lot, the character of this team. They took ownership of the project that Fabien wanted. They are evolving, in the right direction. Above all, there is a very big collective strength of resilience, especially when they don’t have the ball. They are very, very strong in defense, like the last sequences in Wales. And when they recover the balls, with the talent of Dupont, or other N’tamack, they manage to make incredible differences in a very short time with very few passes. For example, against Scotland, the Scots made 150 assists in the match against 90 for the Fifteen of France. But despite everything, the result is there and the tries follow one another because they have a collective strength, especially without the ball, which is quite incredible.
If we talk about the Stade Rochelais players, Uini Atonio, Grégory Aldritt or Jonathan Danty, we have the feeling that they are really very settled in their position. Almost indisputable.
Exactly, Atonio is the father of the group, someone who is very respected and very caring for his partners. Greg, today, is indisputable in his position because he is a boy who drives the team forward, as in La Rochelle for that matter, and Jonathan has given him a second wind in the France team. I think that leaving Stade Français and choosing La Rochelle did him good. He regained confidence. Greg and Uini are also surfing on a good dynamic that has been happening at Stade Rochelais for a few years.
If we look at the choice of number 15, the back of the France team, between Jaminet and La Rochelle Brice Dulin. The choice is perhaps logical insofar as Jaminet is able to stumble?
I think that’s actually what makes the difference. In addition Jaminet was detected in Pro D2, he is doing a very good tour in Australia. But Brice has qualities too. There isn’t much difference between these two players, except of course the ability to goal. There is also the form of the moment. But Brice is in the group, he will stay there, and I am convinced that he will be part of the 2023 World Cup in France.
A last word with you, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, England, yes, it is strong, but we have the feeling all the same that this year, it is manageable, more than usual.
Yes, it can be a little more manageable than two years ago, but beware, she still showed virtue in her last match. Because by taking this red card very early last week against the Irish, they stayed behind for almost 60 minutes. The Irish are not nothing. And then the English know how to play us, they are proud too. “The Crunch” is never a match like any other, you have to beware of the English. But I think all the same that today, in fact, France has a head start and above all has this dynamic of victory.
Everything is in place to win this match, but you must not play it before, not talk about it too much, even if, of course, all the press is talking about this Grand Slam. For the players, you have to stay in the bubble. And then play a rugby match like the others, against a team that will be very difficult to maneuver anyway
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, where will you be tomorrow evening to see the match?
Me, I’m preparing my match in Toulouse, the one postponed Sunday evening, (assistant coach of Montpellier), so I will certainly be with the players. But I will look at him as a supporter, not too much as a spectator, but more as a technician. What interests me is to see the evolution of this team, how they play, possession, and dispossession of the ball, all that. But I’m a bit far from all that and I have a lot of things to take care of.
Yes, there is a first place in the Top 14 to keep in all this… It’s been a good run, in any case, for the moment with your Montpellier team
Thanks, that’s nice. But hey, that’s anecdotal for now, even if it rewards the work of the players. The season is still long. There are 7 games left and behind us it is coming back strong. There are still 9 teams capable of qualifying for the final stages. Just because we’re first today doesn’t guarantee us qualification, so we have to be careful.